Recently I came across something about happiness and have ever since been embracing my grumpy days with a bad set of tracky dacks and a pair ugg boots and not caring who knows about it.
Because being grumpy or having a bad day it makes me happy in a odd way yeah it does, it teaches me stuff about stuff and me . And I would much rather be cranky and life taught than happy and ignorant all the time. If we don’t have a bad day every now and then how are we to deal with the tragedies of life. Life would be as disjointed as a news reader following up a massacre story with one about a surfing three-legged dog its awkward and unnatural.
So consider the following and hurrah for the bad day and all it has to teach us..
“I actually attack the concept of happiness. The idea that—I don’t mind people being happy—but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease in Western society, which is fear of sadness. It’s a really odd thing that we’re now seeing people saying “write down three things that made you happy today before you go to sleep” and “cheer up” and “happiness is our birthright” and so on. We’re kind of teaching our kids that happiness is the default position. It’s rubbish. Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. Happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don’t teach us much. Everyone says we grow through pain and then as soon as they experience pain they say, “Quick! Move on! Cheer up!” I’d like just for a year to have a moratorium on the word “happiness” and to replace it with the word “wholeness.” Ask yourself, “Is this contributing to my wholeness?” and if you’re having a bad day, it is.”—Hugh MacKay, author of The Good Life
xx Deb
{image with thanks to here}
